P.A. Parenteau, Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly each told me today they would be honored to play for Team Canada at the upcoming World Championship from May 3-19 in Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland, and Paul Stastny said he and defensemen Erik Johnson and Matt Hunwick are candidates to represented the United States in the annual tournament that overlaps the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Gabe Landeskog said he would gladly play for Sweden, and Semyon Varlamov is likely to play for Russia.

That’s a possible eight Avalanche players representing their countries — plus coach Joe Sacco officially serving as head coach of the U.S. — after the NHL regular season ends April 27.

Usually, preliminary World Championship rosters include NHL players on teams that do not make the Stanley Cup playoffs or bow out in the first round. With the lockout-extended NHL season, only the players from the 14 teams that do make the playoffs will get a chance to play in the first games overseas.

As Duchene pointed out, this year’s World Championship is viewed as a tryout opporunity for the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia, and Duchene and O’Reilly will be among the long list of qualified Canadian centermen. During practice Peter McNab and I talked about how deep Canada is down the middle, while the U.S.’s strength is on the wing. It goes without saying Duchene or any young Canadian center would have no problem making the team as a winger.